Interesting Exhibits in the Hans Adler Memorial

Museum, Witwatersrand University, South Africa.

Erik Satie's well known 20 Compositions on Sports & Divertissements of 1914.

Rare numbered collectible copy #382 of only 900 produced.

Dr Albert Schweitzer, Musician, Nobel Laureate, Physician and Philanthropist. Gained prominence in his early life as a music scholar and organist. Spent most of his life as a Medical Missionary in French Equatorial Africa, where he opened a noted Hospital and Clinic. Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

Maurice Ravel, who needed money, engaged this Paris Fashion Magazine in 1919 to publish “Frontispice”. As Durand & Fils owned sole publishing rights, they took legal action and stopped distribution of the magazine. The copies already printed had to be destroyed, in terms of the Court Order.

Even Vlado Perlemuter, Ravel’s only surviving pupil, was surprised to hear that such a rare piece of music existed.

The British Museum, acknowledging receipt of the gift of the Magazine and Ravel’s “Frontispice”, copy of which they had been unable to obtain.

Facsimile of Debussy’s approx. 1882 composition of “Jane” conveyed to HA on behalf of Paul Hollanders de Ouderaen (who helped in the biography of Anna Magdalena Bach, JS’s second wife). Madam Paul Hollanders owned a number of manuscripts and facsimiles of Debussy works, including this original manuscript.

Of special interest is the fact that this was donated in 1956, and “Jane” seems to have been first published in the 1960s

Original Josef Suk Serenada

Signed original Josef Suk Manuscript - Serenada.

Signed copy of the limited edition of 1000 printings of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Skizzen und Manuskripte” with some annotations and editing in French, perhaps by an orchestra member.

Dedicated to HA during the composer’s invitation to perform on a promotional tour of South Africa in 1971.

Facsimile of the score of “3 Pieces Breves pour vibraphone et piano” dedicated to HA by Detleff Kieffer, possibly from his own publishing of the composition, dated December 1963. Mr Kieffer toured Southern Africa in 1971 with ‘Les Percussions des Strasbourg’.

Two compositions in honour of Hans Adler:

March by Julian Dawson-Lyell on right, Nov, 1978.

Two preludes for Piano Duet, By John Ogdon, left.

A few articles on some of the rare literary "finds" musicians made while doing research in his Library/Museum

…..A Special section in
the library, like Piano music for various number of hands, …. Smetana Sonata
for 8 hands on 2 pianos and Stravinsky March for 3 hands. Oddities like
“Variations on a Russian Theme for large Orchestra”, written by Artciboucheff,
Wihtol, Liadov, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Sokolow & Glazonov …..a violin piano
sonata with 2 movements composed by Schumann, 1 by Brahms & 1 by Albert
Dietrich in honour of Joachim…. A piano duet Maurice Ravel called Frontispice…
A copy of Debussy’s “Symphony en Si” a movement of a symphony in B minor
composed when he stayed with Madame von Meck (Tchaikovsky’s patroness) in
Russia. It disappeared and remained untraced. In 1933 the MS was found in
a Moscow market and published in a 4 hands edition…. Rarities:
like his copies of a Schumann quartet for 4 horns and piano…. Finally
a thematic catalogue of Beethoven compositions, which had eluded him for
years….. An American Lexicon of Musical Invective, giving misguided
opinions of eminent critics on composers from Beethoven’s time on.
Beethoven’s symphony #2 was described by Kotzebue as crass monster..incoherent
shrill chaotic and earsplitting. Newman’s views on one of Bartok’s works are
scarcely more complimentary. A Lexicon of Jews in
Music, published in Berlin (1940) to avoid contaminating Aryan ears with
Semitic creations. The whole thing is systematically worked out:
born Jews are marked with an asterisk, e.g. Meyerbeer, Mendelsohn, Bloch
etc. (Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg)

Everyone knows Beethoven wrote 5 piano concertos. H A took
down a manuscript with Beethoven’s 6th piano concerto, that
he’d owned for about 6 years. It is the composer’s own arrangement
for piano and orchestra of his violin concerto. Two other piano concertos may also
be regarded as Beethoven’s. One in E flat major, written when he was a
teenager, and some doubt it was an original work. Grove’s Dictionary of
Musicians lists the work as “Un Concert pour le clavecin ou fortepiano. Piano
part only extant”. But H A has the orchestral score too –
constructed from orchestral notes Beethoven included in the piano part.
He also has the piano part and orchestral score of another D major piano
concerto published in the late 18th century as a concerto by
Beethoven. Because the original manuscript was not in his handwriting,
nor contained his signature, some musicologists doubt its
authenticity. After the war, Breitkopf & Haertel published
it as a Beethoven concerto. H A also has a rondo for piano and
orchestra, originally intended to be the last movement for Concerto #2. A
well-known American Orchestra could not find a copy anywhere, so they were able
to borrow his copy. (The Star, Johannesburg)

Jean-Pierre
Rampal and accompanist Robert Veyron-Lacroix are always searching for flute
music whenever they tour, and have found some in obscure little libraries all
over the world. In HA’s library they discovered a first edition of flute
music by Clementi, an 18th Century composer. (The Star,
Johannesburg)

A first edition discovered quite by
chance by the Kontarsky Brothers in H A’s Music Library. A long lost
Schumann Andante & Variations in its original arrangement for two pianos,
two cellos and a French horn. This went out of print a century ago.
Because of the difficulty of getting such players together, Schumann
rearranged the work for two pianos alone. (S.A. Digest, Rand Daily Mail)

In 1791, Mozart composed a piece for the Glasschord, played by the blind musician, Marianne Kirschgessner. This sheet music (for glasschord, flute, oboe, viola and cello) are in the HA library. And the Schumann composition, (two pianos two celli and horn) for which the the renowned piano duo, Lubochutz and Nemenoff had been looking out for, for about 20 years, was found in HA's library.

The Harpsichord maker Sperrhake was amazed to see the harpsichord collection during a visit to South Africa at this time, and tried to buy it lock, stock and barrel.

Eva Badura-Shoda’s remarks……… and HA’s continues searching for an 18th Century
biography of JS Bach. He has the 1802 biography by JR Forkel, published a half
century after Bach’s death but many think there must be an earlier issue. His
Library has an original manuscript of Joseph Suk’s (Dvorak’s son-in-law) String
Orchestra Serenade, probably the only one to slip through the Iron Curtain from
Czechoslovakia, and keeps turning down good offers……Remarks on Ravel’s
Frontispice, and how all copies were to be destroyed due to copyright infringe-ments.
Even Vlado Perlemuter, Ravel’s Concert pupil, who thought he had close
knowledge of his teacher’s work, was unaware that this piece had been written. (Sunday
Times, Johannesburg)

Volumes include Bach’s biography (1802) by JR Forkel,
Arithmetica Geometria et Musica Boetii (1492) by Boethius, Opus
Marianus Capella (1499), Musurgia Universalis by Athanasius (1650),
Le Parnasse Francois by du Tillet (1732), Dictionaire du Musique by the
famous JJ Rousseau (1732), Traite de L’Harmonie by Rameau (1722),
Institutione Harmonishe (1573) by Zarlino, Violin Tutorial ,
perhaps the first by Leopold Mozart, richly illustrated with many diagrams for
holding the bow (1756), 4 volumes of the first English History of
Music by Burney (1776), General History of Music by Hawkins (1776).
(South African Panorama)

Professor
Eva Badura-Skoda, a noted Viennese musicologist writes:…. “It was a great
surprise to find here one of the finest libraries of musical instruments in the
world.” De Institutione Musica printed in 1492, shortly after the
invention of printing is a scientific treatise on accoustics. Institution
Harmoniche by Gioseffo Zarlini (1573) deals with harmony. A musical
dictionary from 1650 is one of the few of its type still extant, and possibly
equally rare is probably the first violin tutor published (Leopold Mozart –
Violin Schule). Occasionally some of the rare music is played on
equally rare keyboard instruments, one of the most remarkable being the
elaborately carved harpsichord of the world famous harpsichordist, Wanda
Landowska.

Alexander Borodin, great composer and medical innovator, a professor of medicine and chemistry, who founded the world’s first school of medicine for women. A well known Pharmaceutical Company sponsored ‘Linking Medicine and Music’. A recording of an almost forgotten Borodin Piano Quintet created worldwide interest in this lesser known works. The music has long been out of print. A piano quintet score was discovered in the HA library, and Walter Klien , one of a number of artists interested in the music, and touring South Africa at the time, was presented with a copy. (Rand Daily Mail, Jewish Herald, Johannesburg)

Books on Boethius’ treatise, the Bach
Biography of 1802, Leopold Mozart’s Violin tutor, published the year Wolfgang
was born, the Ravel “Frontispice” and the gift to the British Museum. One of
the finest privately owned sheet music collections in the world, attracting
global attention. Of piano concertos alone there are 300. Visiting
artists frequently find among thismusic, works previously unknown to
them, some by famous composers and others by forgotten ones. (Rand Daily Mail,
Johannesburg)